Apparatus for treating strands



Sept. 12, 1939. w. c. EWALDSON ET AL 2,172,837

APPARATUS FOR TREATING STRANDS Filed Sept. 3, 1938 INVENTORS W. QEWALDSON H. KPESS A TTOPNEY Patented Sept. 12, 1939 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE ArrAnA'rUs roa TREATING STRANDS Application September 3, 1938, Serial No. 228,354

3 Claims.

This invention ,relates to apparatus for treat ing strands and more particularly to apparatus for treating electrical conductor strands sheathed with textile material with a solution of cellulose acetate or the like in a solvent such as acetone or the like.

Textile covered wire has been treated'in the past with many different liquid substances to coat or impregnate or to impregnate and coat the textile sheathing with various substances either in molten condition or dissolved in a volatile solvent. It is especially desirable in some cases to impregnate and coat the textile covered wire with cellulose acetate dissolved in acetone to improve both the electrical and mechanical characteristics of the insulating coating. Since the solvent in this case as well as in other similar cases is volatile, inflammable and maybe injurious to health, it is necessary to provide an apparatus in which the coating process may be carried on continuously and rapidlyin an enclosed space. It is desirable that the container or housing within which the coating is done shall be small in dimensions in order that all parts may be conveniently accessible for adjustment, cleaning, repair or the like.

An object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus for treating strands with liquid material which shall be reliable and safe in operation and shall be compactly constructed and arranged.

- One embodiment of the invention may present an apparatus for handling strands comprising a housing, a door upon the housing, a. driven shaft within the housing, a capstan freely rotatable on the shaft, and means shiftable from one position to another position to couple the capstan to the shaft to be driven thereby or to be released therefrom, the said shifting means being so proportioned and arranged that when it is in the position to uncouple the capstan it will also prevent closure of the door of the housing.

Other objects and features of the invention will appear from the following detailed description of one embodiment thereof taken in connection with the accompanying drawing in which the same reference numerals are applied to identical part in the several figures, and in which Fig. 1 is a view in front elevation of an apparatus constructed in accordance with the invention and having parts of the housing broken away to show the interior mechanism;

Fig. 2 is a detached enlarged broken plan view of the lower end of the apparatus below the line 2-2 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a detached enlarged view, partly in central longitudinal section of the capstan of the apparatus, and

Fig. 4 is a sectional view on the line 4-4 of Fig. 3.

The apparatus herein disclosed as an embodi- 5 ment of the invention is constructed with particular reference to the coating of textile covered wire with a solution of cellulose acetate in acetone. The apparatus comprises a vertically extended housing 20 conveniently of rectangular 10 cross section and mounted upon any convenient and suitable base member 2| to be elevated somewhat above the floor. A supply reel diagrammatically illustrated at 22 contains a supply of strand 23 to be coated and a take-up reel 24 5 similarly located is used to take up the coated strand emerging from the apparatus. The reels 22 and 24 may be mounted and the reel 24 driven in any suitable and appropriate manner. Such mounting and driving means are well known in 20 the various arts that deal with the treating and handling of strands and it is not believed necessary for the understanding of this invention to describe or show them in detail here.

The strand 23 passes from the reel 22 up along 25 the outside of the housing 20 and over a guide sheave 25 also outside of the housing, and thence it passes through an appropriate small aperture in the housing (not shown) behind the sheave 25 and over another guide sheave 26 within the hous- 30 ing. Thence the strand passes over and once or more arounda capstan 21 and lying in a groove 44 near one end of the capstan, from which it passes down and under a pair of multiply grooved sheaves 29 located below the surface of the coat- 35 mg material contained in the bottom portion of the housing which is formed as a tank to hold a suitable supply of the liquid coating material. From the second guide sheave or roller 29 the strand 23'passes upward between the first of a 40 gang of convex wiper die rollers 3| and the corresponding one of a gang of matched concave wiper die rollers 32. Thence the strand passes on to and around the first of a plurality of similar grooves 4| in the capstan 21 and thence to and 45 over one of the sheaves of a multiple sheave 35. From the sheave 35 the strand passes in succession over anumber of similar multiple sheaves iifi, 31, 38, 39 and 40 and back to the capstan around which it passes in the second of the plurality of 50 closely adjacent grooves 4!. Thence the strand passes down and again under the submerging guide sheaves 29 in the liquid supply tank and thence upwardly between the second pair of wiper die rollers 3i and 32. The strand then passes 55 over and around the capstan in the second of the grooves 4|, over the second sheave of the multiple sheave 35, and thence again over the guide sheaves 36, 31, 38 and 40 and to the third groove ll of the capstan. It is carried again down into the bath, through the wiper dies, around the capstan, and through the tortuous drying path as many times asfound to be necessary to produce the desired thickness of coating material on the strand. On the last pass, the strand passes between an independent pair of wiper die rollers 42 and 43. When this object is attained the strand passes from the last groove 45 on the capstan over the last sheave of themultiple sheave 39 to a guide sheave 48 and out through a suitable aperture in the housing to an external guide sheave 41 from which it passes down outside of the housing tobe wound up on the take-up reel 24.

The structure and operation of the multiple sheaves 35, 35 etc. and of the wiper dies 3|, 32, 42 and 43 are no part of the present invention but are described in detail and claimed in copending applications Serial Nos. 228,353 and 228,352, and filed by the same inventors on the same date as this application. The particular subject of the,

present invention is the construction'and mode of operation of the capstan 21 and its relation particularly to the doors of the housing 20. The capstan 21 is primarily supported upon a hollow shaft 94 supported as a cantilever in the rear wall of the housing.20.' This shaft is journalled in the wall of the housing in any suitable fashion to be rotatable therein and is driven by means of gearing 95 from any suitable power source not shown. The capstan body96 is mounted as by bearing members 91 to be freely rotatable on the shaft 94, About midway of its length, the shaft 94 is slotted to permit the passage of a transverse key member 98 and to allow the key member. to be longitudinally slidable for a short distance with respect to the shaft. Although the key is forced by the walls of the slot to rotate with the shaft, the key' is secured to the inner end of ,-a rod 99 housed in the bore of the shaft and slidable longitudinally to and fro by means of a suitable handle I00. at its left hand end. A sleeve l| rigidly secured in the body 96 of the capstan is formed inside with clutch members I02 adapted to coact with the key 98 when the latter is slid to the right from the position shown in Fig. 2 to drive the capstan in rotation. The various parts are so proportioned and arranged that when the handle member I00, which is used to operate the rod 99 and thus clutch and unclutch the key is out of engagement with the shoulder.

shaft 94 from the capstan body 96, is in its leftmost position in Fig. 3, this handle prevents the closure of the doors I03 of the housing 20 so that unless the capstan is operatedly connected the housing can not be closed.

While the invention as herein embodied is applied specifically in an apparatus for coating a strand with cellulose ac'etate, 'hevertheless it is not limited to this particular use but'may be applied in a great variety of strand handling apparatus and the invention is to be thought of as limited solely by the appended claims.

What is claimed is:

1. In a strand handling apparatus, means to dinally of the shaft.

2. In an apparatus for handling strands, a housing, a door on the housing, and means within the housing to propel a strand, comprising a capstan body around which the strand is to be wound, a hollow shaft upon which the capstan body is rotatably mounted, a transverse key mounted in a radial slot in the shaft' to be rotatable with the shaft and longitudinally slidable relative thereto into ,either of two positions, a shoulder on the capstan for coaction with the key in one of the positions thereof only, and a rod within the hollow shaft and connected to the key to slide the same longitudinally of the shaft, the end of the rod projecting from the shaft to pre vent closure of the door of the housing when the 3. An apparatus for handling strands comprising a housing, a door upon the housing, a driven shaft within the housing, a capstan freely rotatable on the shaft, and means shiftable from one position to another position to couple the capstan to the shaft to be driven thereby or to be released therefrom, the said shifting means being so proportioned and arranged that when it is in the position to uncouple the capstan it will also prevent closure of the door of the housing.

WALDEMAR C, EWALDSON. HEINZ KRESS. 

